Report: Delay recommended for new Mendocino County Courthouse

A state group deciding which of 30 new county courthouses should not be built has recommended that plans for a new building in Mendocino County be delayed for a year due to the state's proposed budget.

According to a report prepared for the Judicial Council of California's next meeting Tuesday, the Court Facilities Working Group is recommending that planning for Ukiah's proposed courthouse and 10 others be deferred until Fiscal Year 2014-15.

That is because the proposed 2013 Governor's Budget for FY 2013-14 includes a "redirection of $200 million in Senate Bill 1407 construction funds (the source of money for the projects)" and "deferred repayment of a $90 million loan" from the fund as well.

Since 2009, nearly $1.5 billion of that fund have been "loaned, swept to the state General Fund or redirected to trial court operations," the CFWG reports. Because of that, the group had recommended that two courthouse projects be canceled, 11 be "indefinitely delayed," and that all others have their budgets reduced.

Ukiah's proposed courthouse has not been indefinitely delayed, but the CFWG is recommending that "preliminary plans" be delayed one year, unless "SB 1407 funds are restored in FY 2013-14."

The group is also recommending that site acquisition continue for the building, which has been reduced in size to include one fewer courtroom.

The county's new courthouse planned in Ukiah was previously described as having nine courtrooms at a cost of $119 million. At last word the Administrative Office of the Courts was still considering two sites for the new courthouse, one plot near the Ukiah Railroad Depot on East Perkins Street and a collection of parcels that includes the library and Curry's Furniture.

The depot site is now considered the "preferred site," and at a strategic planning session the Ukiah City Council held in January, Vice-Mayor Phil Baldwin intimated that certain council members had lobbied strongly for the depot site to become that.

"That is not true," Council member Mari Rodin said. "No one pushed for it to be further away (from downtown). Nobody is pushing for it to be at the depot site."

Rodin continued by explaining that the depot site became the preferred option because "it wasn't going to be possible to acquire the property necessary to build the courthouse (near the library)," because not enough owners wanted to sell.

Justine Frederiksen can be reached at udjjf@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @JustFrederiksen or at 468-3521.